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This interview has inspired me to write the following.
I have a minor fault in my circuits. My opinion about news articles keep changing as frequently as the costumes of heroines in south Indian movies during song sequences. I felt very happy when I saw the news that the people responsible for the bomb blasts have been shot dead and the entire mystery behind the bomb blasts solved. My initial happiness changed into doubt and while watching the news the ungreased gears in my head started cranking and rotating. I had told MBH that the police is not showing any proof that the people killed are the actual terrorists and its not a fake encounter. Other than the views expressed by Doc Zafarul, one factor that attracted my attention was that the entire police force (2500 according to the doc) were standing in and around the area where the event took place and they were acting as though they were in mafti when they were fully dressed in their uniforms and acting normal. Some policemen on balconies of buildings, some policemen on the streets, some in nearby latrins etc all very casual and routinely. My understanding of how policemen should act in a hosstage/terrorist situation is heavily dependent on hollywood flicks and some old malayalam movies. That is, send in an expert and kill off the terrorists one by one. Nevertheless, I found it interesting that instead of deploying every available men behind the two escaped terrorists and going after them himself, the DCP was busy explaining to the media what exactly happened. Minute by minute detail was being given to the media when hundreds of policemen were zimbly loitering around in the area. Somehow the DCP seemed unfazed that two wanted terrorissts had escaped. This was lying in the back of my head till I read the interview.
I wish to highlight an event I witnessed when I was working in UP. The National Highway was blocked by some local people of a nearby village demanding action from the police with regard to a murder that took place in that village. Upon enquiry, one villager told me the story.
Pappu Singh (name changed because I have no clue as to what the real name is) wanted to start a small business and he needed about 20,000 Rs to start off. As he had no cash on him, he decided to borrow some cash from Tejpal Singh (again name changed because of reason previously mentioned). Tejpal is happy to oblige and gives Pappu beej hajjaar ruppayya. Pappu being a naughty naughty boy spent all the cash drinking “Cannon 10000 beer”, pauuas and lavising cash on ravishing local prostitutes. Tejpal wanted to marry off his daughter/his cousins daughter and asked Pappu to give back the cash after some six months. Pappu, as I had explained before,had spent most of the cash on pros and cans of beer and and when he checked his dibbas where he used to keep money he found chillar which sent a chill down his spine. More than fear Pappu was overcome by anger as in his mind he thought Tejpal had no right asking back the money as the small “businness” he was engaged in had no returns. What happens next is something straight out of a grindhouse movie scene. Pappu invites Tejpal for a party and gets Tejpal so drunk that he is close to anesthesia. He then takes out his chaakku and makes mutton chops out of Tejpal. The remains of Tejpal are thrown into a nearby canal.
The reason why I wanted to tell this event is to make everyone realise that the quantum of evil resting in the minds of men should never be under estimated. How can we be sure that the informers in these cases are not people like Pappus? Having seen a good number of Suresh Gopi movies which has given me extraordinary courage to look into the face of any policeman and shout “Pha pulley!!!”, I will most definitely be shot dead, wiithought the slightest hesitation, the moment someone like Pappu, having borrowed money from me, misinforms the police that I’m a terrorist. This risk would have been raised to a mindnumbing figure had I been born in a middle class muslim family. So if you are a non-extremist, non-terrorist muslim living in a congested area, who has lent some money to someone, your life expectancy will be greatly reduced. You could either die in a terrorist bombing or you could die in the hands of some extremist hindu faction or the Delhi Police may be informed that you are a terrorist and they will encounter an error.
This is assuming that the information received by the police is wrong and they killed non-terrorists. What if the informant was not Pappu but someone else? We shall never know.
Notwithstanding the above, the doc should have protested in a proper manner, rather than requesting for investigation of such encounters, he has gone on record saying that the bomb blasts were done by extremist hindu wings. I do not have an inkling of understanding of what he is planning to achieve by these comments. People like him are adding fuel to the fire that is already burning in this country for many decades. What I have noticed is that right after terrorist attacks, the people lose boundaries of cast, religion and economy and come together as one and within a few weeks of the incident, people like the doc/political parties do post mortem of the event and start blame games reintroducing the boundaries, only that every time, the boundaries get wider and the terrorists get more recruits.
MBH – My Better half
Pauua – Local hindi word for quarter bottle whisky
Chaakku - Knife
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